Mayor Lovely Warren, far left, presents her team on stage at the Auditorium Theatre at the end of her public inaugural ceremony Saturday.

For Lovely Ann Warren, with most of her City Hall team in place and requisite inaugural ceremonies behind her, now comes the weighty task of governing a city with mounting challenges.

Based on her essay published on our site today, it's arguable that no one understands that better than Rochester's first woman mayor. Coupled with a soaring inauguration speech delivered at Saturday's public swearing-in ceremony, it should be reassuring to city residents - and those across Monroe County who understand the city's vital link to the region's well-being - that Warren is deeply committed to producing the change essential to Rochester's resurgence in the 21st century.

"Promises, promises, promises," Warren said in her inauguration speech. "They must lead to progress."

Rampant poverty. Epidemic joblessness. Poor performing schools. Perceived unsafe streets. Widening city budget gaps. Rising demand for neighborhood services. Inadequate tax revenue. Downtown development. With so many problems, where does a new mayor even start to put her stake in the ground?

City schools

Judging from Warren's emotion-packed inauguration speech, which she used adeptly to talk to her 3-year-old daughter, Taylor, schools will clearly get much of the mayor's attention. But she must be careful because urban schools are a huge problem that mayors around the country have had little success conquering. In Rochester, unlike cities such as Chicago and New York City, the mayor has no statutory authority over schools. But the fact that the city spends more than $119 million annually on schools does entitle Warren's concerns to be heard by the school district and acted upon. City Hall and the City School District should work together more closely than ever to improve student performance.

Better neighborhoods, downtown development

Warren's promise to improve city neighborhoods is obviously on her short list, as it should be. Though neighborhoods hardly have been neglected, more can be done to make them safer and livable. That will require funds that have been drying up for decades as people moved from the city to the suburbs, and the state and federal governments faced their own budget crises. Warren has promised to be more innovative and resourceful, while also continuing to support downtown development projects that can generate additional tax revenue.

Unite Rochester

These are only some of the challenges that Warren is up against. She can't fight this battle alone. She'll need her talented team and city residents, of course. But she will also need people from the suburbs and across the region to do their part.

It's fortuitous that Warren is already a leader in a newly organized group of elected and appointed officials from around Monroe County who have started talking about mutually beneficial projects as part of this page's Unite Rochester campaign. At the table are city council and city school board members, as well as town supervisors, suburban school superintendents and school board members, and Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn. Helping to keep this group of leaders focused on common interests fits well with the kind of change Warren promised during her campaign and in Saturday's inauguration speech.

"This is a moment in time when things begin to change," is how Warren put it. For this region's sake, let's all work together to prove her right.